Everyday life of a working grannie and hubby(6 gorgeous grandchildren) and my 91 year old Mum,Joyce, living with us,we love our little home,our chickens and "George", Bob's cockatoo who goes to work with him each day.

Our Home our Haven

Monday, January 30, 2012

Some things we can't resist.

Just a couple of things that had to come home with me this week,i am trying to cull but will remove some items to make way for these.

Green Glass water jug , I am going to put flowers in it at times...

Some lovely plates,all my plates are odd bods so they will fit well with our others, I would prefer to eat off lovely odd fine china that a matching cheap set,somehow it make meal times so much more enjoyable. Total price for jug and plates was $5 you can't beat that.

Each morning Bob puts Georgie's old seed out for the wild birds to come and finish up and it is a delight every day to see them come, sometimes they bring the new babies,always returning for a sure safe meal.These are King Parrots native Australian birds.The messy corner is Bobs pumkin patch at the moment home to about 7 butternut pumkins.

Saturday, January 28, 2012

The last of the holiday visits are over and school is about to go back so this is Livvy and Will's couple of pics driving and exhausted.love the sleepy pics lol.

Livvy totally done,Grammy works them too hard lol

Poor Will all done and Mr Sniffles his puppy is too!

Awake and having his drive,look the tooth fairy has been since last visit.

Livvy working the PDF,it took me ages to learn,it took all the kids 5 minutes!

Livvy driving,I am almost swamped by the kids now they are almost too big to sit on my lap,well actually Lilly is.

Today is my birthday and our son and family came home for the day,we had lunch at the pub and it was so lovely a huge meal and we are all too full! forgot to take pics but I got very spoilt with presents so here is what I received.

From our son and family,a new portrait taken at Christmas and some glasses as I have almost all odd ones.

From my daughter and family 2 books to take away at Easter,I like autobiographies and I will love these and some slippers and a home made card which I especially love.

From Bob some craft books and a wind chime he made from an old lamp piece and bits and bobs and he paid for everyone's lunch as I am not a party girl this was nice,we missed our girl being here but we had a lovely visit from her mid week and she stayed over,so that was special.

From Mum some money.this will go into my hiding spot until I see something I really want and from my brother a lotto pack,maybe I will win if not it does not matter he sent me a card and thought of me that was enough.

So now scarily I am 63.Where did that time go! I am heading for a new time of life where we should be winding down,but,work is busier than ever.....maybe that will keep me young lol not by the look of my pictures earlier ! anyhow another year has passed,I pray that God will protect and keep me safe and well to look after Mum and Bob....

Monday, January 23, 2012

Shez,Inspiration and Spotlight Sales.

Since I sewed myself silly leading up to Christmas the machine has not been out.Then Shez did a blog on her towel toppers and I thought I might have a go.The machine is still not out because children are still here but...
Sptlight had a sale and so now I have 24 tea towels and hand towels with toppers cut out awaiting me.Also 2 quilts to put together for the April quilt show...
Now why on earth do I have to do so many of anything,never ever do i just do 1 thing..maybe I have a compulsive disorder..
So it is Shez's fault for getting me going again after feeling i would never sew again,and Spotlights fault for having such a good sale!

All the fart quarters were $1.50...a bargain....

A large quilt that was under half price....

This one is smaller but it is my colours so I could not resist..I will see if I can meet the challenge to get them made by April!

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Thank you for your kind Thoughts

Thank you all so much,it is a wake up call for me as my mind is behaving quite childlike,thinking that life will never be the same again and the scary thing is that Mums sister is 88 and Mum 91 so the reality is that they won't be here forever as I had thought they all would be..wake up girl!...life is not as cosy and calm as I had thought.

Anyhow,the children are here safe and the days will be full and take Mums mind a little off her sadness and the funeral will be Wednesday and we will take Mum to the bush with us so she is not alone.

A little of whats been happening now,remember we took out our wood fire,which left us with a hole in the ceiling,well a fellow down the road came to help Bob so that it is done nice and neat.

This is the mend so far, he has been now and touched it up a bit more and it just needs to be sanded.

Why didn't I put a cover over all the cupboards! It lead to mum and I washing all the dressers out and left me wondering "What the!" I need to sometime get rid of some things lol

All back in place,all sparkly and fresh, a little change here and there as all the cupboards are full of old china,I just love it,o'h well another day I will sort it out and get rid of some,like Bob says "if it was not everywhere,it would not be you"..so I guess he is right...well this time anyway lol.

My very special beautiful Uncle John passed away this morning peacefully at 8.16am.He was 79 about to have his 80th birthday and he has been a big part of my life,I was raised in the same house he lived in with my grandparents, he gave me away at our wedding and I simply loved him.After just 2 days in hospital his body just gave up and God took him into his arms..sleep a wonderful restful slumber,you deserve it after some very hellish days ,Uncle John,don't forget to save me a place up there,I am so grateful that I got to see you not long ago and that you loved me was a blessing.Mum is very distressed as this is her baby brother and we live far away and could not get to say goodbye or to go to the funeral on Wednesday.Saying goodbye to this generation is very difficult,we are lucky to have longevity in the family,however it makes us realise that time passes so fast so we have to make the most of every day.

Mum and Uncle John on her 90th birthday.RIP John Henry Burrows..22.02.1932.......22.01.2012

On a happier note,we now have Livvy and Will here for a few days,they were going to cancel but we thought they would keep Great Nanna occupied as they bring her lots of joy.

Friday, January 20, 2012

Eden's Visit

Eden has been and gone, he had just 2 nights as h got quite homesick which is not at all like him,we usually have to drag him home,however we have a quirt hose compared to the ruff and tumble of siblings and I think he really missed that,however in our short time together we had a nice time.

First of all in town a passing truck threw up a stone and shattered the back window, so we had to spend time in town getting it repaired,Eden spent that time in Vinnies a well known op shop,he had a ball.

Next morning,mail sorted time to load the car ready to go bush...it was so good to have a helper,Eden was also great with the PDF scanner,not yet ready to do the actual mail sort as Lilly did but good enough for me!

Box of mail on his lap,Eden enjoys catching up with the changes since his last visit,he got the mail out and handed it to me as we got to the mail boxes.

O'h me and Molly says it all,just a bit out of order here,I may say that Molly has been very quiet today,missing her mate.Eden has Molly's brother Clyde and he is wild where as Molly is quiet,got everything to do with we are all oldies and they live in a riotous home lol.

Eden Driving sitting on my lap,the highlight of the childrens visits each time,I have to say I am getting less lap left every visit!

OOps looks like the road is getting graded,after all the rains the road was very dangerous,and we meet all kinds of things as we go along.Unfortunately Eden missed this as the next pic shows.

Eden on the way home,absolutely pooped,nanny has worn them out again! would you believe after we came back,changed cars etc to take him to meet Dad,he went straight back to sleep and slept all the way home.A sudden bout of homesickness when he woke up on this morning made his visit shorter,but I would prefer to take them home than have them sad for Mum and Dad...they will be back ..maybe next school holiday or the one following as this little family are off to Fiji in about 7 weeks for a holiday of a lifetime...lucky them!

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Little Helpers

The best part of life at the moment is that all the grandchildren ( well 4 of them ) are taking in turns for a little visit to our home...Livvy and Will are at moment in the middle of swim classes so it is Lilly first..

They grow so fast and from a little girl that was hard to entertain to a great helper and so grown up it was a delight to have lilly.

Lilly is now big enough to help sort the mail, she was so good and made no mistakes,I was so surprised,she also learned how to use the PDF for scanning parcels and it was such a help for me..as I do not have a relief worker anymore Bob says he wished we could find someone like Lil to work with us lol...

The best part opening the gates way up at the last property,after I drive through all the kids sit on my lap or between my legs and drive the 2 klms to the homestead(I use the controls and they steer) with the mail and they drive back and when they get out to do the gate I take over again,they love it.

Then Lilly did an interview with a wonderful old fellow Fred Day for an article for our Whisper paper,questions through they eyes of an 11 year old,she asked so many sensible things and also things like "were you scared"? and "were there any animals in the trenches?" lots and lots he is so interesting...the main reason we did it is that I am calling for Care Packages for our troops in Afghanistan for Anzac Day packs and Fred received one in 1945 when he was fighting in Tarakan and he still has the tin it came in!He is a collector of all things historical and had so much to show and after 2 hours we had still not left his dining room,we will go back another holiday and hear some more stories.Fred is showing Lil his medals here.

Here he is showing the 25lb bomb shell cases and Fred is getting out bullets from each country that he has including British shells,they are not live he has had them professionally made safe,it was a wonderful learning curve for Lil.Fred has this kit made up as he visits the schools to talk about his war..and his age yes he is 90 years young!Remembers everything that ever happened in our little town..wonderful.

So Lilly is back home safe in Mums arms and Eden is here so his adventure will begin today,wonder what we will do?....the days will unfold in their own way.

Saturday, January 14, 2012

A whole lot of changes goin' on.......

First of all Happy 9th Birthday to our MR Eden who told us the other day he is so tired of being 8!!!! I must remind him of this when he is groaning at 30 lol.

Sadly because of a leaking ceiling etc we made the decision to remove the wood heater causing all the problems, I know we will miss it dreadfully and it will take time to get used to the change,we have other heating but will eventually put gas in, I am not sure about elsewhere but getting wood is almost impossible and buying it so expensive,so we are winding down ready for retirement in a couple of years..

Sadly now it is gone but it opened the room up so much..we will miss her.

This lead to the rearranging of furniture and the other decision to buy another desk as ours was actually a small hall table and had little knobs that the boss kept hitting his knees on and not so nice words lol so we saw this beauty and had to have her, she is mahogany and was on sale very reasonable so I had to rob my stash of savings,I will get it put back as someone straight away bought the wood fire(must have smelt us removing it) and a birthday coming up so I will get some money for that and put it back .I have not put bits in all the little places yet as Lilly is coming to stay and I thought she would enjoy that and when Livvy comes soon she can do the other side.

This desk even has secret drawers,what fun ahead...

The other thing I did was to try out the dehydrator that we got for nothing...and it was great,we did tomatoes,mushrooms and onions,we put the tomatoes in a good oil and the mushroom left to be rehydrated in winter, we are going to do garlic next for garlic flakes,I think this will be well used.

With an abundance of little tomatoes we needed to find a way to utilise and not waste them,at our op shop we are not allowed to sell electrical so this was free and had never been used.

The mushrooms, I was surprised at how neat I was lol

Home grown onions we did not do many until we saw how they went these will make lovely flakes,we will do more of these.

Have a good day,enjoy the little of the weekend that's left and be peaceful and rested...a good day for the garden today but we have to go away for the day and collect Lilly..so to a Nanny that's just as much fun.

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Family Photo..Christmas day 2011

Nothing to say really I think the pic tells it all,deep down everyone loves everyone,but like some families at times there are hiccups..sadly our Son-in-law had to work so he is missing...the younger grey headed lady is my sister -in- law Jan recovering from cancer,she had black hair to her waist at the beginning of treatment,she went from that to bald and now the loveliest grey slightly curly hair..Alex now 13 is getting bigger than his Mum...where do the years go...
All those people slept here for multiple nights,yikkes where did I put them all!!!

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Funny that...who would have thought?

I have noticed that many bloggers are trying to loose weight after the Christmas cheer and goodies.
This year I barely got the first course of any meal down let alone seconds lol so I actually lost some.

However prior to that I was starting to feel the belt getting a little tighter and would comment many times to Bob..his answer was always a very male.."well do something about it"..bugga why do they always say the obvious!

We did do something about it about 18 months ago, we bought one of those machines on the telly that swing your hips as you do a stepping motion, it was great I tried it ONCE!...yes just once thought this is going to be so good but just kept walking past it and looking each morning, then we all tripped over it,then we decided the great place to put it was on the back verandah,we would use it all the time there.
Then the spiders moved in and made it their home, Bob would water all the plants,stub his toe on it and swear,"are you going to use this bloody thing"..."O'h yes I will start tomorrow".
Tomorrow came and the great thing about tomorrows is there is always another one,one tomorrow I walked out the door to find it gone...it lives very happily in the wood shed.
I got to thinking as I saw the add on TV again what a great machine they are ..and that you have to actually use it to loose it,who would have thought!
So who would have thought that these wonderful machines actually have to be used to get you fit,I knew when we bought it what would happen,I just knew that using it was all in my head..so what now,does it go to exercise equipment heaven,to the op shop where I collect them on a weekly basis almost,never a scratch on them,or do I do the right thing...do I realise that it cost money and that I wasted what could have been spent on something else,get it out of the wood shed and get on it...we will see...I will think about that tomorrow!

Monday, January 9, 2012

Remember When?
I have not blogged for a little while as I promised myself no more sad blogs so thought it best to stay absent and just been following and commenting when ever I could.
Thank you to the lovely lady that left me a message...many things have happened...although othing major.
So no winging just a small list of happenings:
Have had from 5 to 14 people staying since early December..back to 3 now so feeling more normal,although I would not change a thing.
Christmas was wonderful with both Mums and Bobs sister as well as all the family,everyone got on so well and a lovely time was had ,a misunderstanding after the event caused a heavy heart,words taken the wrong way caused an upheaval,my darling girl had a hard time, hearts were heavy,broken bridges mended and all ok again now but it was a tough couple of days, lessons learned all round.
I have had a hacking cough for about 8 weeks and finally went to the doctor today,tested for Whooping Cough but feel I am safe,now have a puffer and meds and maybe will get the first nights sleep for ages if I am lucky.
Mum had a fall on Saturday when we were away taking Bobs Mum and sister to the train over an hour away,she is fine..what a worry! just a few cuts and abrasions.Going to tie her to a chair next time we go anywhere.
Bob and I had planned to step back and slow down,guess what ...Val beat us,is stepping down so now we need to step up GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!! lol not to worry it will be fine.
No need to leave any comments it is all just a lot of twaddle just the reasons why I have been missing in action...
On the upside..my sealed pot is getting heavier all the time.
We have done a lot of work in the garden and down sized the garden beds to more manageable areas.
We have frogs in our pond and eggs ,we are so excited,hope the fish don;t eat the tadpoles.
Our vegie patch has been wonderful all season,tomatoes and cucumbers to die for.
The best news of all is my brother is coming at Easter to look after um so we can have a little break,so we will go back to where we went last time and if it rains it does not matter but we hope to catch lots of fish.
I hope to be back soon with something interesting to say...have a great day.

Happy are those who delight in doing what He commands. Their children will be successful everywhere, an entire generation of godly people will be blessed. They themselves will be wealthy, and their good deeds will never be forgotten. Psalm 112:1-3